Today, a prayer within a prayer:
Our Father who art in heaven.
And in the hearts of those who love you.
Hallowed be your name,
Especially among those who are weak in faith
and those who have been kept away
from their Savior by their circumstances.
May your kingdom come,
Among those who have denied their Christian values
out of fear or because of a greater dependence
on material things.
On earth as it is in heaven,
Especially among those who are oppressed
and deprived of their human rights and dignity.
Give us this day our daily bread,
Especially among those who will go to bed hungry today,
to those who are starving to death,
to those caught in earthquakes, storms, and accidents.
Forgive us our trespasses,
Our laziness and lack of commitment,
our mistrust of one another,
the lies we sometimes tell to preserve our position and pride,
the selfishness which sometimes motivates our actions.
As we forgive those who trespass against us,
All those who have oppressed us and taken advantage of the poor;
who have denied their freedom because of the inconvenience
they may have caused them.
And lead us not into temptation,
Into either too great or too small an estimation of ourselves,
into a complacency based on a false sense of security,
into pointless anger which leads us to treat others
in a way we would not want to be treated ourselves.
But deliver us from evil,
From all those things which threaten our faith in ourselves,
our hope in the final revelation of your kingdom,
our love for every part of your beautiful creation.
For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory.
And so we pledge against to you this day our
bodies, minds, souls, and spirits.
Now and forever.
In this world and the next your are our God
—the one and only—and we are your handmaidens.
Beulah Shakir
Blessings,
Ron
